Florida lawmakers won’t wait

Some school transportation managers in Florida are disheartened by the state’s decision to mandate seat belts (or another approved restraint) on all school buses. “All we asked was for the legislators to wait until NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] came out with its report on occupant protection,” said Michael D. Connors, transportation director at Escambia County School District in Pensacola, Fla. “Whatever the NHTSA study called for, we would have supported. That’s the message we tried to convey, but it didn’t do any good.” The bill, HB 1837, was signed on June 8 by Gov. Jeb Bush. It requires that all school buses purchased after Dec. 31, 2000, be equipped with seat belts or other approved restraints. The law also requires that students use the restraints, but protects school bus operators from liability in the event that passengers are injured because they weren’t restrained. In addition, the law requires school districts to prioritize the allocation of buses to ensure that elementary schools are first served with restraint-equipped vehicles. Charlie Hood, Florida’s school transportation director at the Department of Education, said he also had urged lawmakers to delay any action until NHTSA finished its study. A final report is due June 2000. Connors, meanwhile, testified during a Senate hearing on the measure and witnessed other testimony. He said proponents of the bill made a “purely emotional appeal,” using a young woman who testified that her brother was irreparably injured in a school bus accident. “Never did she discuss how seat belts would have prevented the injury,” Connors said, “but she had all the people there thinking, ‘We have to put seat belts on all of these buses.’ Now we have to live with it.” Hood said his department is in a “wait-and-see mode” concerning the implementation of the law. Because it doesn’t specifically mandate seat belts, Hood said “we’re being very open-minded about the technology and hardware that could be used to satisfy the law.” Because of the timing of Florida’s legislative session, even if NHTSA’s final report advocates against seat belts and other active restraints, it would be too late for lawmakers to revise the law before implementation.

Ryder sells its school transportation division

Ryder Student Transportation Services, North America’s second-largest school bus contractor, has been acquired by a British transportation company called FirstGroup PLC. Ryder’s public transit division and its public fleet maintenance service are also part of the $940 million deal, which FirstGroup officials believe will provide a platform for growth in the U.S. transportation market. Ryder’s school transportation division, based in St. Louis, operates a fleet of more than 10,000 school buses, second in size only to Laidlaw Transit Inc. in Burlington, Ontario. FirstGroup is Britain’s largest bus operator. Another large British transportation concern, National Express, entered the U.S. school bus contracting sector in the past year by acquiring two companies: Crabtree-Harmon Corp. in Belton, Mo., and Robinson Bus Service in Chicago.

California eyes lap/torso belt requirement

A measure that would mandate lap/torso restraints on new school buses has been approved by California’s Senate Education Committee. Earlier, the bill cleared the Assembly on a 74-2 vote. The next stop for AB 15 is the Senate Appropriations Committee. After that, it goes to the full Senate. The bill is sponsored by Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-City of Industry), who estimates that the restraints would add $2,000 to $2,500 to the cost of a typical school bus. California pupil transportation groups opposed earlier attempts to mandate lap belts on school buses, but are softening their position on AB 15 because it calls for a torso restraint as well.